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Which should I buy low, medium or high spec Macbook pro?

R

rudlow

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 3, 2020
3
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I'm planning on buying Macbook pro 16 in the near future, but because I plan to buy it in Hong Kong (I live in Europe) I cannot buy the exact spec I wanted:i9 2,3ghz, 32GB, 5500m 4GB, 1 TB.

I can choose between the basic specs of i7 (2.6GHz, 16GB, 5300m, 512GB) and of i9 (2.3GHz, 16GB, 5500m 4GB, 1TB) and high spec i9(2.4GHz, 32GB, 5500m 8GB, 2TB). This is because only these are available in store everything else must be ordered online (possible only for HK residents) or ordered in store (short timeframe).

I do video editing (Adobe Premiere and After Effects) for a living and live in medium income country so the high spec stretches my budget very much. Also, I'm not big on storage as I use external drives mostly for practical reasons so 2TB is definitely overkill for me and waste of money. Clock speed and video RAM are nice but I'm not sure if they are worth it.

Do you think I should go with the basic i9 or go for i7 and invest in a faster external drive (ssd) for the price difference? The reasoning for the latter is that if I use a faster disk it might offset the lack of RAM a bit.

Prices in Hong Kong are similar to US prices.
 
I use the MPB 16 for video editing. IMHO:

- Don't use Macs for Premiere. Premiere is not optimized for the Mac. Buy a Razor Blade or Del XPS 15".
- If you must buy a MBP 16, I recommend i9 2.3, minimum 32GB, 5500M 8GB.
- Switch to FCPX or Resolve if you use macOS. They are much faster than Premiere on the Mac.
 
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- Don't use Macs for Premiere. Premiere is not optimized for the Mac. Buy a Razor Blade or Del XPS 15".
- Switch to FCPX or Resolve if you use macOS. They are much faster than Premiere on the Mac.

I'm afraid I must. We have macs at work and Adobe license. I keep my projects on external hard drives and just take them from work to home and back.

- If you must buy a MBP 16, I recommend i9 2.3, minimum 32GB, 5500M 8GB.

Also, would if I could. See original post.
 
rudlow said:
I'm afraid I must.
Click to expand...
Would a PC be workable then? Sounds like your office is using Macs so, I wouldn't change platforms but if they're using PCs, and the software runs better on PCs then get a PC.
 
I use Premiere on both Mac and PC. I find that extra RAM is more helpful in a laptop than anything else for decent render times.

Since you can't upgrade the RAM on your own, I would suggest getting the model with 32GB if possible. It will last a lot longer and be faster, allowing you to work more efficiently without headaches. 16 GB is a flexible amount for people who aren't doing heavy duty video/photo editing, but just browsing with 5-10 tabs open plus Mail uses 11 GB of RAM alone, and I have seen up to 18GB in use depending on what sites I have open. That means you would need to constantly manage your RAM by closing everything while working in Premiere.

I have an alternate suggestion:

If your budget it set at a certain amount, consider a 15.4" model WITH THE VEGA 20. Don't get any 15" model without the Vega. The Vega models have better cooling, and were only available in higher spec. They were for sale new until July 2019, so many are still available new from retailers. I was able to find a top spec i9 2.9 / 32 GB / 1 TB / Vega 20 model from 2018 and it is amazing for my After Effects work. Heating is not an issue and I have not had throttling.

The Vega 20 is a beast and compares well to the new 16" 5300M. Yes, you'll have the keyboard issues to be concerned about but at least where I live Apple is good about fixing the keyboard when needed. Let us know what you decide!

(And Premiere isn't as bad as it used to be - but it is still slower on a Mac than PC)
 
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Yes, thank you pointing that out. They have them in the refurbished/clearence section. I have a bit more time to think. The trip is being postponed because of Corona virus. We'll see...
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maflynn said:
Would a PC be workable then? Sounds like your office is using Macs so, I wouldn't change platforms but if they're using PCs, and the software runs better on PCs then get a PC.
Click to expand...

No, Macs all round.
 
Yeah, I wouldn’t do the 15 under any circumstances at this point. I have an older retina 15. At one point, I took in the 15 for repair, and they told menor would take 2 weeks to complete repairs. I bought a 2017 15” maxed out and it actually ran most things at the same speed or slower than my old retina mbp. I know they had a couple of years to update, but at this point, if you’re doing serious work on a machine, you’d be hard pressed to convince me that a 15 would do when the 16 is an option.
 
OP:
As you mentioned (re the Corona), I wouldn't want to be traveling to Hong Kong any time in the near future.
I wouldn't go there until the Corona virus has run its course and is no longer a threat.

Look for another source from which to buy the MBP...
 
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